Old Cross at Clonmacnoise
"Proceeding from M'Dermot's Church, our attention was directed to a very fine stone cross, the largest in the place, formed of one piece, and covered with carvings in basso-relievo and inscriptions, which had I the ability, my time would not allow me to decipher. 'Come, my good woman,' said I, 'tell what may be the stories told of these figures.'—'Why, then, myself cannot tell you anything about them, they are all out ancient; may be Darby Claffy yonder, the ouldest man about the churches, could tell you somewhat.' Now Darby Claffy was standing idle, leaning not far off against the wall of Dowling's church, looking up at O'Rourke's tower, and a finer study for a sketcher than the head, face, and form of the venerable-looking man could not be seen: eighty winters had dropped their flakes as light as snow-feathers on his head; and there he stood, with his hat off, his fine Guido countenance and expressive face, a living accompaniment to all the grey venerability that was around. 'Come over here, Darby Claffy, honest man, and tell the strange gintlemen all you know about them crosses and things—musha, myself forgets; at any rate, I must run and show Judy Delancy, the simple crathur, where to find her father's grave. Heaven be wid yees, gintlemen, and don't forget poor Judy.' A shilling given to her seemed the source of unutterable joy, her little son, that was beside her, appearing as if he never saw so large a coin, snatched it in raptures from his mammy, and danced about the gravestones in triumph. I was pleased to buy human joy so cheaply.
The old man did not belie his fine countenance; his mind was stored with traditionary recollections concerning Clonmacnoise, which, if not according to recorded facts, were founded on them; and he spoke with perfect assurance in the truth of what he said, and of the sanctity of all around. 'Can you, my honest fellow, tell us anything about the figures carved on this cross?'—'A little, plase your honour, but sartain I'm no scholar. Come here now, mister, do you see that figure with the keys? That is St. Pether; and that there beside him is St. Kieran. Do you see a book in his hand? That is the Gospel of St. Matthew, which Kieran learned so well from holy Finian, of Clonard, in the county Meath, where in ould times there was a great school, somewhat the same as Maynooth now is, whence young Father Flinnerty has just come home edicated; well, plase your honours, Kieran was called Kieran of St. Matthew because he knew that gospel so well. And do now look below Pether and Kieran, and don't you notice young men smiling, and one playing the bagpipes? Well, this represents the young priests that Kieran brought with him to Clonmacnoise; and as well becomes the divil, he must needs envy their devotions, and he used to come by night and play his bagpipes to divart them there, and draw them off from their vesper duties; and up they'd get from their knees, when the ould boy, in the shape of a piper, would play a planxty, and set a bait (they couldn't for their life help it), jigging it away. Now St. Pether in Heaven saw, to be sure, all this, and so he comes down to tell Kieran of it; and moreover he falls upon Satan in a thrice;—don't you see him there how he has tumbled the enemy of man? and as you see there, is sending him headlong to hell.' There was certainly something like a man playing the pipes cut on the cross, and a representation of two persons contending, and one getting the better of the other; but whether old Claffy was right in his reading I cannot say. This cross is certainly one of the finest I have seen in Ireland; I question whether it is even inferior to those immense ones that are at Monasterboice, in the county of Louth.
"From thence we proceeded, the old man following us, to the church and round tower, which stands in the north-western extremity of the cemetery, and which is usually called McCarthy's church and tower. The round tower, though small, is one of the most perfect in Ireland; it is conically capped, and the ranges of stone forming the cover are of the most beautiful and singular arrangement. The tower stands on the south side of the chancel of the church; and the doorway of the tower, instead of being elevated ten or fifteen feet from the ground, is on a level with the floor of the chancel, from which it leads; it is within a few feet of the altar; moreover the archway leading from the nave of the church into the chancel, which is of the most finished, and at the same time chaste order of Gothic construction, is wrought into the body of the round tower, part of whose rotundity is sacrificed to give room and form to the display of its light and elegant span. Now these two circumstances convince me that, in the first place, the church and tower were built at the same time; moreover, that as the church was placed more remote than other churches, and nearer invaders coming across the Shannon, the tower was provided as a look-out station, and place of ready retreat for the priests to retire to with their sacred vessels and books.
"McCarthy's church, in the north-west corner of the cemetery, was built by the McCarthy More of Munster, the greatest sept in Cork; he who held under his sway the O'Learys, and the O'Sullivans, and the O'Donohus, and I don't know how many more Milesian O's and Macs. It is a curious and peculiarly interesting ruin, because, as I said before, there is here evident proof that the round tower and church were built at the same time; for besides that they both are formed of the same kind of stone, and are constructed with the same range and character of masonry, there is part of the rotundity of the tower sacrificed to give play to the full span of the chancel-arch, and exhibits one of the most chaste specimens in the world of what is called the Saxon arch. This tower is not large or lofty; it measures but seven feet in diameter within, and is but fifty-five feet high; it has a conical cap, which is essential, according to antiquarians, to make a round tower perfect; and a freemason, supposing he was master of his craft, would say 'Well done' to the artist who constructed the beautiful courses of cut stone by which the cut cap was brought to a point. As I have already said, the door of the tower is level with the ground, and I think I could discern the marks of stairs that rose spirally to the top; unlike all other round towers, which, though there are marks of floors, story over story, in no other instance present marks of spiral stairs."